You Were There All Along
by bethwrites
Summary: This has been done about a million times, but hoping to add my own style to the mix. Meredith and Derek are already married before starting life in Seattle. How does this affect characters and relationships? Really fluffy, rated T. Goal is one episode/chapter to the end of the series. Get ready for a really long ride!


Meredith's eyes blinked open of their own accord and flicked to the alarm clock gracing the nightstand. She instantly sat up, energized immediately by the current time and its unexpected proximity to the time she needed to be at work. Late was not a word that Meredith Shepherd allowed into her vocabulary, and she was not about to start today. _Worth it, wasn't it?_ asked the smug voice in the back of her head, but she ignored it in favor of dealing with the naked, sleeping man in the bed beside her.

She covered herself with the comforter stolen from his back, and dropped a pillow on his ass on her way into the bathroom as a means of waking him. His bleary eyes opened and looked around, catching the same view of the clock that she had. He, on the other hand was unconcerned.

"Mer," he pointed out in his dazed, half-awake voice that she knew would not disappear until he had consumed coffee or felt the unbridled Seattle air on his face, whichever came first. "You're, uh..."

"Overreacting?" she finished for him. "I am not. It is a damn long ride into the hospital."

"Not from here. Mer, we are in town. Don't worry about it."

"Seattle traffic is terrible, Derek. You won't get it until you experience it, truly experience it. But thanks to you, we spent the first week of our life here out in the wilderness on an island instead of getting used to the rush hour commute. Screw you and that stupid trailer."

"You'll be happy to have the trailer when the neighbors are complaining about the noise level in here and we need some real privacy," he smirked at her from the bed. She glared at him, but the effect was not that scary with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth and foam dripping onto the comforter that she was using as a robe. "Why don't you come back down here and we'll pick up where we left off last night?"

"No. We have to go," she insisted. "Get dressed." He sat up with no regard for his state of undress, but still didn't get up.

"So, I like this place of ours."

"It's not our place," she reminded him. "It's my mother's. And I can't live here, not permanently."

"Reason number two to keep the trailer," he pestered her, but she ignored him in favor of cleaning the toothpaste off of the comforter and finding a clean set of clothes. She felt like it was the first day of kindergarten and she was picking out an outfit that would make the other kids want to be friends with her. But in this case, she was a grown-ass kindergartner with a husband and a career to launch.

"We're not doing the thing."

"We can do whatever you want," he said suggestively.

"No, I mean exchange meaningless small talk until we end up back in bed getting nowhere with the day. We can't afford that today." He buttoned his shirt and she could feel her self-control bolster itself. "Look, I'm going to get in the shower. And when I get out, we are going to go to work."

"Want some company?" he teased, ready to pop the buttons off of his shirt if it meant another intoxicating moment with his wife before they experienced what was bound to be a 48-hour dry spell.

"No!" she protested. "When I get out, we are going to go to work. We are going to be professionals. So, goodbye, Derek."

"Dr. Shepherd?"

"Dr. Shepherd, right. Dr. Grey." He grinned and vaulted himself over the bed to kiss her on the cheek. She grimaced at his morning breath. "You need to brush your teeth."

"Nice meeting you, Dr. Grey," he teased.

* * *

They ended up being late, despite their best efforts. Meredith squeezed in amongst the other interns just in time to catch the tail end of Richard Webber's first-day speech. She had heard several variations from different Chiefs in the past when she had accompanied her mother to work on the first day of the new year.

 _"This will be you someday,"_ her mother had whispered to her, pointing at all the new interns. _"When you're an intern, you have to always work to prove your worth."_ She wondered if Richard still remembered her from back in those days. She certainly remembered him.

She was determined to prove her worth the way her mother had said she would have to. She had never meant to fall in love with a med student during her freshman year of college, and she certainly had not banked on that med student growing up to become one of the most successful and sought-after neurosurgeons in the country. But she was not going to let her personal connection to Derek influence the way that she was treated at the hospital. She had applied for internships under her maiden name, figuring that wherever she worked, she would be working with Derek. The fewer people knew that she was married to her boss's boss, the better.

* * *

She felt very invisible when the horde first entered the locker room, but that feeling didn't last very long. She found a kindred spirit in one of the only other women in the room.

"Only 6 women out of 20," she said in disgust, trying to break the ice.

"Yeah, and I hear one of them is married to one of the neuro attendings. Seriously, that's gonna help with the respect thing?" Meredith cringed at her words. "Which resident are you assigned to?" Cristina continued. "I got Bailey."

"The Nazi? Me, too," Meredith answered with apprehension and resignation. A voice from around the corner piped up.

"You got the Nazi? So did I." The speaker was a puppy-like young intern who she had met very briefly at the mixer the previous night. _Gary? Geoffery?_ "At least we'll be tortured together, right? I'm George O'Malley." _Oh, that's right. George._ She felt bad for not remembering his name, but in all fairness, she really did meet a lot of people in the short time she was there the previous night. _Yeah, the short time before you went home and got laid, you skank._ She dismissed her inner voice again. _Wait, is George still talking?_ It was clear that he had some sort of crush on her. That wouldn't go down too well with Derek... he was definitely the jealous type. She hoped that George and her husband wouldn't cross paths too often, or her cover as Dr. "Grey" would be blown.

* * *

Halfway through the day, the discussion at the intern table was already centered around her mother. She could hear the others talking about it halfway across the room as she picked up her lunch.

"...Like it's uncommon around here to be a doctor's parents -"

Cristina cut him off. "No, royally inbred. Her mother is Ellis Grey."

"Shut up, _the_ Ellis Grey?" Izzie asked.

"Yeah, but I still want to know which one of the girls is married to an attending. I've checked the entire roster, whoever she is must have kept her maiden name. My money's on it being the least competent intern here." Wow, Cristina was ruthless. If Meredith was not the clear object of her disapproval, she could easily see them becoming fast friends.

She joined the table rather than listen to them talk about her any longer - whether or not they knew that it was her they were talking about. "Katie Bryce is a pain in the ass," was her opening line.

"Forget that, do you know who's married to an attending?" Izzie asked with peak curiosity. Thankfully, Meredith was saved by the entrance of Preston Burke.

Derek had met Burke a few days ago when he had orientation at the hospital. From what he said, Burke already had it out for him - something about stealing his chance at Chief. That, and the other attendings already knew about their marriage because her husband had the biggest mouth in the world. Meaning he had it out for her, too."

"Good afternoon, interns," he began. "It's posted, but I thought I'd share the good news personally. As you know, the honor of performing the first surgery is reserved for the intern who shows the most promise. As the attending running the O.R. today, I get to make that choice." Meredith basically was ready to fall asleep. He wasn't going to give it to her. He hated her on principle. "Meredith... Grey."

She looked up from her applesauce. "Me?"

"You'll scrub in for the intern appy this afternoon. See you there." With that, he was gone.

"I'm not surprised, with your mother being the general surgeon she was," Cristina said. "I'm jealous."

"Oh my God," Meredith groaned, getting up from the table. "I have to go to the skills lab."

"You'll do great," George encouraged her.

Unsure of herself, Meredith headed off to the lab to practice. _He's messing with you to get to Derek,_ her inner voice told her, and for once she concurred.

* * *

"Katie's parents have questions," Meredith found herself relating to Bailey, her resident, later in the day. "Do you talk to them, or do I ask Burke?"

The Nazi replied, "Burke's off the case. Katie belongs to the new attending now, Dr. Shepherd. He's over there." She pointed to Derek, and Meredith sighed audibly.

"What was that?" Bailey asked.

"No, nothing," Meredith muttered and made her way over to her husband, whose eyes understandingly lit up at the sight of her.

"I thought I wouldn't see you all day," he said softly, glancing around him and, finding no one looking at them, tried to sneak a kiss.

She shoved him away, glancing around furtively. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Nothing. Kissing my wife. Is that so bad?"

"It is when we're at work trying to be discreet," she protested. "Here." She grabbed his arm and yanked him into a nearby stairwell. "When we're at work, we need to be professional," she admonished him.

"So, what, pretend that you didn't fall in love with me eight years ago or that you didn't marry me two years later? Because both are fond memories that I'd like to hold onto."

"I'm just saying. I want to be taken seriously here, which I can't do if everyone thinks the only reason I got in here was because Webber wanted you. And God forbid someone think that I married you just to get the career benefits."

"You married me when I was still a med student, it doesn't work that way. Nobody could have known that I would grow into my nose and become a neurosurgical superstar." She glared at him. "What? I am."

"You still haven't grown into your nose. Believe it or not, you are not that good-looking."

He scoffed. "Once upon a time you thought that I was very good-looking. Want to revisit that thought? Maybe when you get off of this shift?"

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you've seen me naked!"

"But I have. Many, many, times. Last night, in fact, back when you seemed to think I was good-looking." His arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her close, but she was still having none of it.

"That's it, Derek. You're done until the end of my shift. No touching at work!"

"Is this our life now? I finally get the opportunity to work with you and you won't let me touch you? You wound me."

Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her lab coat and scrubs. He couldn't help but grin - she was adorable - but tried to stifle it so that she wouldn't become murderous. "Kissing during work is inappropriate," she said reproachfully. "Has that ever occurred to you? Go to Katie's room and answer her parents' questions. I can't go with you, I have the intern appy."

"I did hear about that," he said with concern. "I know you're nervous and you spent the last couple hours in the skills lab. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," she sighed. "But if I end up with residents and attendings thinking I'm incompetent because he had to mess with me to get to you, I'm going to be very unhappy." She tried to stride off, but he caught her hand and pulled her back.

"Mer," he encouraged her. "You're going to do well. If I know anything, you are one of the most talented interns here. Kick some ass and prove to everyone that you are here on your own merit." Not giving her a chance to protest, he stole a kiss from her lips. "Then maybe we can be public about our marriage, hmm?"

* * *

She stood in the operating room, scrubbed and sanitized, repeating the steps of the appendectomy to herself, over and over again. _Open, identify, ligate, remove, irrigate, close_. She looked up and could see the horde of interns taking bets on her performance. She knew they were all negative. _Prove them all wrong._ The voice in her head was encouraging for once.

Burke came in and the procedure began. To his credit, he quieted her fellow interns when they sarcastically applauded her every move, but he did seem to know that she was doing everything she could to impress him. He embraced the power that he held over her and her husband in this moment, clearly.

She successfully removed the appendix, taking her back to med school when they practiced this same procedure time and time again on cadavers. But this was nothing like that. This was a _real_ rush.

"Nicely done. Now all that's left to do is invert the stump into the cecum and simultaneously pull up on the purse strings, being careful not to break them." Before he could even finish his sentence, she had completed the task exactly as required. The job was done.

Cristina was staring at her, open-mouthed, respect basically dripping off of her. George beamed. Meredith looked up at Dr. Burke, saying nothing, but her eyes told him everything he needed to know. _Have some respect for me and my husband. We're here to take this hospital by storm._

* * *

Katie's case had been reassigned to Cristina while Meredith was prepping for the appendectomy, so she figured it was all going fine when she had heard nothing from Derek. She was wrong.

He came into the conference room like a bat out of hell, lab coat billowing around him, hair somehow perfectly out of place - the way it was when he woke up in the morning or after he went for a jog in the wind. He winked discreetly at her, and she rolled her eyes but accepted it, still high on surgery. He'd clearly heard of her success.

But he had to get back to the issue at hand. "I'm gonna do something pretty rare for a surgeon. I'm gonna ask interns for help." She could practically feel the ego dripping off of him and onto everyone else in the room. As he described the situation, she was reminded of case studies from med school - both the ones that she was given in class and the ones that he quizzed her with at night. Some were the ones that his professors had given him in school, and some were cases that he took home from work every day. Two surgeons in the house sure was a wild ride sometimes.

"...Whoever finds the answer rides with me. Katie needs surgery. You get to do what no interns get to do. Scrub in to assist on an advanced procedure. Dr. Bailey's gonna hand you Katie's chart. The clock is ticking fast, people. If we're gonna save Katie's life, we have to do it soon." He finished his speech and left as abruptly as he had come in. Although she had no intention on scrubbing in to assist Derek with surgery on the first day, Meredith made a beeline for the charts. She at least wanted to take a look.

But Cristina approached her before she had even the chance to leave the room. "Hey, I want in on Shepherd's surgery. You were the intern on Katie at the start. You want to work together? If we find the answer, each of us has a 50/50 shot at scrubbing in."

Meredith thought about it. "I'll work with you, but I don't want in on the surgery. You can have it."

Cristina was visibly confused. "Are you kidding? It's the biggest opportunity any intern will ever get."

"I can't spend any more time with Shepherd than I have to."

"What do you have against Shepherd?"

"If we find the answer, the surgery's yours. Do you want to work together, or not?"

"Deal."

* * *

It didn't take long for Cristina's curiosity to get the better of her. "Are you seriously not gonna tell me why you won't work with Shepherd?"

Meredith was adamant. "No. What about infection?"

"No, she has no white count, no fevers... come on just tell me."

On the one hand, Cristina clearly had it out for whoever was married to the neuro attending. She cared more about that than the fact that Izzie used to be an underwear model. But she needed to tell someone around here, and she figured that if she convinced Cristina that she was here because she was good at what she did, then she could convince anyone. She caved.

"You can't comment, make a face, or react in any way," she cautioned her. "It's me. I'm the one married to the neuro attending. I met him when he was in med school and I was just starting freshman year at Dartmouth. We've been married for six years."

Cristina gaped, directly breaking Meredith's condition. Her face burned. "What about an aneurysm?" she eventually asked.

"No blood on the C.T., and no headaches."

"Okay," she responded. "No drugs, pregnancy, or trauma... so you kept your maiden name?"

Meredith glared. "No. I'm using it at work because I want people to take my work at face value. I figured being my mother's daughter was less of a ding than sharing a last name with my boss's boss."

"Fair enough." She was still judging, it was obvious. But it didn't seem like she was going to go spreading it around.

Meredith got up to shelve a book. "We're out of answers. What if no one comes up with anything?"

"You mean what if she dies?" Meredith nodded. "This is going to sound really bad. But I really wanted that surgery."

"She's just never going to get the chance to turn into a person," Meredith lamented. "Do you know what her pageant talent is? Rhythmic gymnastics."

"Oh, come on," Cristina laughed. Meredith was glad they were finding some common ground. She might have made a friend.

"I mean, what is rhythmic gymnastics?" she continued. But then she realized.

"Oh."

"Meredith, what?"

"Let's go."

"Where?"

"To find my husband. I think I've got it."

* * *

And find him they did. Found him, convinced him, went with him to the angiogram. And then it was time for the reward to be given out.

"I'm sorry I can't take you both, it's gonna be a full house. Meredith, see you in the O.R." Before she could say a word in protest, he walked away.

Cristina looked at her. "Aren't you going to do something?"

Meredith sighed. She should. To scrub in meant that she lied to Cristina and that, more importantly, she was letting her marriage get in the way of her professional life. She knew Derek had picked her because they were married and not because the idea had been hers. He didn't know that. Cristina had done most of the talking, anyway.

But the thing was, she'd already experienced surgery once. She needed to experience it again. And she felt kind of guilty that her first surgery had been without Derek. Even though she'd never promised him that in the first place. But...

Cristina walked away, despite Meredith's best efforts to bring her back. She would deal with her later. For now, she had another surgery to prep for.

She also reminded herself to thank Derek later for being a working professional.

* * *

Cristina approached her as she basked in the afterglow on the bench outside the O.R. "It was good surgery."

"Yeah."

"We don't have to do that thing where, you know, I say something, and then you say something, and someone cries, and we have a moment, right?"

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a minute, and it was understood that Meredith was forgiven, if only by the skin of her teeth. "You should get some sleep. Two surgeries. Fun, but you look like crap."

"I look better than you," Meredith joked.

"That's not possible."

No sooner had Cristina departed did Derek show up. He somehow didn't notice her sitting there for a long moment. And he didn't until she piped up.

"That was amazing." He turned to her, his smile bigger than ever. "That was such a high."

"Better than the intern appy?"

"Don't be bitter... I got to scrub in on two surgeries this shift. You still snuck in there in the first forty-eight hours."

"That's right. Two surgeries... I could not be prouder of you, Mer."

She blushed furiously. "Did you just pick me because..."

"Because I'm in love with you? No," he responded. "You let Cristina do the talking when you two presented to me. Which is Meredith for "I'm letting others take the credit for my work". Besides," he added. "I talked to the other attendings. You killed the intern appy. First one ever. Looks like Burke misjudged you." She beamed. "I'm gonna go... do this. And you should get changed. But then we'll go see your mother, okay?"

"Okay."

"Oh, and Mer?" he grinned. She felt it coming.

"Yeah?"

"End of the work day. I'm no longer banned from touching, right?"

* * *

 **A/N: Welcome to my new story! First one on this account (my old one got very out of hand and I stopped liking everything that I was writing so I took a hiatus and now I have returned under a different penname and that is the story of Beth). I usually do these things at the beginning, but why ruin the start of a brand new fanfic with an author's note? So I am treating you to my lovely voice at the end, instead.**

 **You can expect an update at least sometime this week if not within the next few days. I don't know when I will settle into an uploading routine, but I will let you know as soon as I have a solid day or two when you can expect something from me each week.**

 **These chapters will be pretty long, as demonstrated, so get ready for the long haul! Please leave reviews if there's something you like (I always love those! They make my day!) or something you'd like me to do differently in the future. Just keep it constructive! Have a great day everyone, and hope you enjoyed!**


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